1971 Jaguar XKE – Flat Cat

Posies Builds A Chevy-Powered Jag To Drive Often And Hard.

There are at least two ways we know of to pronounce Jaguar. Ordinary civilians pronounce the name Jag-whar. However, some folks will lift their chins, clear their throats, and say Jag-you-rrr in the British manner. If you hear someone employ the second pronunciation, you know you are speaking to a hard-core Jaguar enthusiast. HOT ROD offers this information as a public service to aid in identification. You’ll probably want to avoid showing this story to Jaguar purists, who tend to be very protective of their favorite marque. The sight of this car could cause them to totally wig out on you.

Ken “Posies” Fenical built his XKE not as a thumb in the eye to Jag loyalists, but simply because he likes his cars to be different. While this is approximately the eleventy-third feature-worthy car he’s done, Ken remains a bit modest about his rod-building abilities. “If I can’t outspend them and I can’t outbuild them, maybe I can out-think them,” he says. In that effort, Posies-he got his nickname from the family flower business-will go well out of his way to come up with new and different directions for his machines. And while some members of the Jaguar crowd might be offended by his choice for his latest piece, the fact is he began with one of the least desirable E-Types around, at least in their eyes: a “late-model” ’71 V-12 in the more awkward 2+2 body style. Posies found this one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where it had been parked for 22 years. So get over it, Jaguar people.

Posies calls his latest creation Flat Cat, but this is no road kill. (Sure, now we’re offending cat lovers.) The Jag is built to drive. At a Goodguys show in Columbus, Ohio, Flat Cat’s first public appearance, it placed Third among 31 entries in the autocross event. When we spoke to Ken on the phone, he was preparing to hit the road for an eight-day tour from his shop in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, to the SEMA show in Las Vegas, with numerous stops along the way to visit his hot-rodding friends. A tradition among Posies and his buds, the annual road trip is known as the Driven Dirty Tour, and the Jag was built to run it. The name Flat Cat refers only to the exterior paint: DP50 Flat Black epoxy primer from PPG.

Jaguar purists are traditionally lukewarm toward the 2+2 version of the XKE due to its tall greenhouse, which is out of scale with the much slimmer body profile below the beltline. Posies corrected Flat Cat’s proportions not by chopping the top, but by extending the rocker panels 2.5 inches toward the pavement, forming sturdy box sections of 10-gauge steel on both sides of the unit body. With its new, thicker midsection, the body no longer appears top heavy, while louvers in the rocker panels help to break up the extended sheetmetal.

Ken fixed the Jag’s other major shortcoming by ditching the original V-12 (an overly complicated underperformer, in our book) in favor of a Chevy ZZ383 crate engine by GM Performance Parts coupled with a Tremec five-speed. A Weiand Stealth intake manifold accommodates a 750-cfm Holley, while the ignition is MSD. On the Dynojet chassis dyno at McNews Automotive in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, the combo made 311 hp and 370 lb-ft at the rear wheels. The Jaguar IRS gurus at Concours West in Castle Rock, Washington, beefed up the rear axle with a 31-spline carrier and axles to handle the additional stresses.

Of course, this is not the first Jaguar, E-Type or otherwise, to have a small-block Chevy V-8 stuffed inside. Where this one stands apart is in execution. Note how nicely the gloss-black Dayton 18-inch wire wheels contrast with the brass knock-offs and flat-black bodywork. Note also the white steering wheel and dash controls, à la vintage Porsche, and the finger guards for the toggle switches on the dash. We would also direct your attention to the front subframe, powdercoated in John Deere Green, and the carpeting in glorious faux puma. Wow. Sounds horrible, looks great. “Two of the guys in the shop said they would walk out and never come back if I did that,” Posies says. But he not only did it-he made it all work. Clearly, Ken Fenical is one cat who knows what he’s doing.